diff --git a/src/frontend/mame/clifront.cpp b/src/frontend/mame/clifront.cpp
index aa5ec7606b8..7d21585e3c7 100644
--- a/src/frontend/mame/clifront.cpp
+++ b/src/frontend/mame/clifront.cpp
@@ -1452,7 +1452,9 @@ void cli_frontend::romident(const std::vector<std::string> &args)
 	ident.identify(filename);
 
 	// return the appropriate error code
-	if (ident.matches() == ident.total())
+	if (ident.total() == 0)
+		throw emu_fatalerror(EMU_ERR_MISSING_FILES, "No files found.\n");
+	else if (ident.matches() == ident.total())
 		return;
 	else if (ident.matches() == ident.total() - ident.nonroms())
 		throw emu_fatalerror(EMU_ERR_IDENT_NONROMS, "Out of %d files, %d matched, %d are not roms.\n", ident.total(), ident.matches(), ident.nonroms());
diff --git a/src/frontend/mame/media_ident.cpp b/src/frontend/mame/media_ident.cpp
index 9881e992a51..44b4271a7e5 100644
--- a/src/frontend/mame/media_ident.cpp
+++ b/src/frontend/mame/media_ident.cpp
@@ -332,6 +332,9 @@ void media_identifier::digest_data(std::vector<file_info> &info, char const *nam
 
 void media_identifier::match_hashes(std::vector<file_info> &info)
 {
+	if (info.empty())
+		return;
+
 	auto match_device =
 			[&info, listnames = std::unordered_set<std::string>()] (device_t &device) mutable
 			{